Packing door for refuse truck

ABSTRACT

A packing door for a refuse truck which in its fully open position is located along the roof of the truck body remote from the refuse compartment opening so that the opening is unobstructed. The door is provided with a bearing on each side which are identical, being elongated and having arcuately shaped ends. A piston and cylinder mechanism is mounted on each side of the truck body with a piston rod coupled to each bearing by a link. When the door is actuated from its fully open position, the piston and cylinder mechanisms move the bearings in a straight path along a rectilinear guide surface to move the door in a corresponding straight path rearwardly of the body until it extends above the opening of the refuse compartment. At the end of the rectilinear guideway the bearings enter a rotary guideway which prevents further rectilinear movement but guides the bearings in a rotary movement. Because of their overcenter connections to the bearings, further actuation of the piston rods causes rotation of the bearings in their associated rotary guideways to produce a corresponding rotation of the door through the opening into the refuse compartment for packing the refuse contained therein. Opposite actuation of the piston and cylinder mechanisms produces a reverse movement of the door for opening the compartment.

Unite States Patent [1 1 Nickel [1 3,759,406 Sept. 18, 1973 PACKING DOOR FOR REFUSE TRUCK [76] Inventor: Ronald W. Nickel, 604 Glenview Ave., Waukesha, Wis. 53060 [22] Filed: Nov. 30, 1971 [2]] Appl. N0.: 203,262

10/1971 Anderson 214/833 Primary Examiner- Gerald Forlenza Assistant Examiner-Kenneth Noland Attorney-Cyril M. l-lajewski [57] ABSTRACT A packing door for a refuse truck which in its fully open position is located along the roof of the truck body remote from the refuse compartment opening so that the opening is unobstructed. The door is provided with a bearing on each side which are identical, being elongated and having arcuately shaped ends. A piston and cylinder mechanism is mounted on each side of the truck body with a piston rod coupled to each hearing by a link. When the door is actuated from its fully open position, the piston and cylinder mechanisms move the bearings in a straight path along a rectilinear guide surface to move the door in a corresponding straight path rearwardly of the body until it extends above the opening of the refuse compartment. At the end of the rectilinear guideway the bearings enter a rotary guideway which prevents further rectilinear movement but guides the bearings in a rotary movement. Because of their overcenter connections to the bearings, further actuation of the piston rods causes rotation of the bear ings in their associated rotary guideways to produce a corresponding rotation of the door through the opening into the refuse compartment for packing the refuse contained therein. Opposite actuation of the piston and cylinder mechanisms produces a reverse movement of the door for opening the compartment.

5 Claims, 7 Drawing lFigures PATENTED SE?! 8 I975 SHEET 1 BF 2 L I I INVENTOR. P014410 W M0654 #TTa A/E/ PACKING DOOR FOR REFUSE TRUCK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to doors for truck bodies and has particular application to the doors of refuse trucks.

Refuse trucks are frequently designed so that the door which. covers the opening through which the refuse is loaded into the body also serves as a packing member for tightly compressing and packing the refuse in the enclosed truck body. As a result, the door must move toward the interior of the truck body.

On the other hand, when the refuse is also unloaded through this same opening, the door must be moved out of the way to fully clear the opening. It must be capable of being fully opened and moved away from the opening so that it will not interfere with the manipulation of the truck body, as in a dumping operation which may be dumping the refuse into a bin or into another truck for transfer to its ultimate destination. Accordingly, a door of this type must be capable of movement through a relatively long path of travel, at least an appreciable portion of which is frequently a rotary motion.

The mechanisms for producing such movements have been rather complex. U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,398 issued to applicant on Jan. 12, 1971 discloses a simplified mechanism for obtaining the desired movement of the packing door for a refuse truck. However, in that arrangement, it is always necessary for the truck operator to manually shift the door operating mechanism from one side of an overcenter position to the other in order to obtain movement of the door from a closed position to an open position suitable for loading refuse into the truck and then to a clearance position in which it is disposed on the roof of the truck to fully clear the opening for a dumping operation. During the reverse movement, the operating mechanism will move the door from the clearance position to the open position and then the operator must again shift the operating mechanism from one side of an overcenter position to the other in order to enable the operating mechanism to shift the door from the open position to the closed parking position.

The present invention is an improvement of that arrangement, with the operating mechanism oving the door through its entire range of movement, including a straight line movement and a rotary movement, without any manual intervention by the operator.

Moreover, the structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,398 provides for only rotary movement of the door. It has been found that greater efficiency is obtained by combining a rotary movement with a rectilinear movement and such combination is incorporated in the present invention. The rectilinear movement withdraws the door from the opening to provide better clearance and the mechanism for producing the combination of movements is simpler than that required to provide the large amount of rotation necessary to rotate the relatively heavy door from a packing position to the remote position which is required to obtain the essential clearance at the opening.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The door to be operated is provided with a bearing on each side and each bearing moves in a path of travel established by a guideway with the bearing moving in the guideway. A hydraulic piston and cylinder mechanism is operably connected to each bearing and operate simultaneously to move the two bearings in unison to actuate the door in its path of travel.

Each bearing is elongated, having two straight parallel edges and two arcuately shaped ends. The parallel sides cooperate with a straight portion of the guideway to guide the bearing in a rectilinear path of travel for producing rectilinear movement of the door. The end of the guideway is provided with a curved portion which cooperates with the arcuate ends of the bearing to cause a rotary motion of the bearing in response to actuation by said piston and cylinder mechanism and thereby produce a corresponding rotary motion of the door to the closed position. While the door is thus moving in the rotary motion to the closed position it is packing the refuse into the body of the truck.

When the door is in the clearance position it is lying flat on top of the truck body to fully clear the opening so that a dumping operation may be performed without interference. Actuation of the piston and cylinder mechanisms first cause rectilinear movement of the hearings in the guideway until they reach the curved portion of the guideway. Such rectilinear movement of the bearings causes a like movement of the door in an outward direction until it extends rearwardly of the truck body above the opening in the truck body. The curved portion of the guideways prevents further rectilinear movement of the bearings but continued actuation of the piston and cylinder mechanisms causes the curved portion of the guideways to produce a rotary motion of both bearings which produces a corresponding rotary motion of the doordownwardly through the opening in the truck, into the body of the truck, so that it functions to pack the refuse in the truck body. A reverse actuation of the' piston and cylinder mechanism will produce the same movement of the door in a reverse direction.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The foregoing and other objects of this invention which will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof may be achieved by the apparatus herein described by way of example in connection with the illustration of its structural components in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation illustrating arefuse truck incorporating the features of thepresent invention with the door-being shown in the fully open'position; I

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view of the truck shown in FIG. 1 with the door having been moved in a straight path to its intermediate position;

FIG. 3 is afragmentary view of the truck shown in FIG. 1 with the door having been rotated from the intermediate position depicted in FIG. 2 to a packing position within the body of the truck for packing the re fuse contained therein, parts of the structure being bro ken away to reveal the interior of the truck body and the door operating structure;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of the truck shown in FIG. 1 with parts broken away to better illustrate the relationship of the several structural members;

FIG. 5 is a detail view in vertical section taken through'one of the guideways that are mounted on the truck body for guiding the two door bearings in the desired path oftravel; I

FIG. 6 is a detail view partly in vertical section and partly in elevation to show how the door bearings are mounted on the door and how the links connect the piston rods to the door bearings; and

FIG. 7 is a detail perspective view of one of the door bearings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Reference is now made more particularly to the drawings and specifically to FIG. 1 thereof which illustrates a refuse truck incorporating the features of the present invention. The truck includes the usual motor compartment 10 and operators cab 11 which are carried on a frame 12 that is rendered mobile by wheels 13.

Material is carried by a truck body generally identified by the reference numeral 15. The illustrated body 15 is especially adapted for hauling refuse. To this end, it is fully enclosed except for a rear opening 16 through which the refuse is loaded into the body 15 and through which it is also dumped out of the body. The body 15 is provided with a floor 17 having its rear end curved upwardly to prevent the escape of any liquids which may have been received therein. The rearmost edge 18 of the floor 17 defines the bottom of the opening 16. The opening 16 is closed by a packing door 20 which functions to close the opening 16 as well as to pack the refuse tightly into the truck body 15.

The novel features of the present invention are incorporated in the arrangement of the door 20 and in its actuating mechanism. The door 20 may be moved between a fully open position as illustrated in FIG. 1 to a packing position as illustrated in FIG. 3. In FIG. 1, the door 20-is shown in its fully open position where it is disposed above the roof of the body 15 and fully clear of the opening 16 so that the contents of the body 15 may be removed therefrom by a dumping operation. When in the fully open position depicted in FIG. 1, the door 20 is sufficiently remote from the opening 16 so that it will not interfere with any dumping operation even though the contents are being dumped into a bin or into another larger truck for hauling to its ultimate destination.

In order to move the door 20 from its fully open position as illustrated in FIG. 1 to its packing position as illustrated in FIG. 3, it must be first moved in a straight line directly rearwardly to an intermediate position where it extends rearwardly above the opening 16 as illustrated in FIG. 2. When the door arrives at the position depicted in FIG. 2, it is moved in a rotary motion downwardly, in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2, to the position shown in FIG. 3. While moving in such rotary motion, its outer edge moves along the curved portion of the floor 17 for moving the refuse into the truck body and packing it therein.

The combined rectilinear and rotary movements of the door 20 are produced by a pair of piston and cylinder mechanisms which are both generally identified by the reference numeral 25. One piston and cylinder mechanism is mounted on each side of the. body 15 and they are identical in construction and arrangement.

Each piston and cylinder mechanism includes a cylinder 26 having an ear 27 which is mounted by a pin 24 to the body 15, the cylinder 26 being pivotable about the pin 24 relative to the body 15. A piston rod 28 extends outwardly of the cylinder 26, being attached in the usual manner to a piston (not shown) disposed within the cylinder 26. The piston rod 28 is connected by a pin 29 to'a link 30 for pivotal movement relative to the link 30. The link 30, in turn, has its end opposite the pin 29 fixadly secured by bolts 40 to a door bearing generally identified by the reference numeral 35, as clearly shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. One bearing 35 is mounted on each side of the door 20 to extend outwardly therefrom as clearly shown in FIG. 6 and there is a cooperating link 30 on each side of the body 15 for attachment to the two piston rods 28 as well as to the bearings 35 on each side of the door 20.

Each bearing 35 includes a pair of straight parallel edges 36 and a pair of oppositely disposed arcuate ends 37 as clearly illustrated in FIG. 7. The bearing 35 includes a mounting shaft 38 which extends from the bearing portion which carried the edges 36 and 37.

As shown in FIG. 6, the moutning shaft 38 extends into the bore of a tube 39 which is welded to a plate that is a part of the door 20. The shaft 38 is suitably secured within the tube 39 by welding or the like, and the link 30 is rigidly secured to the bearing 35 by the bolts 40.

The bearings 35 are guided in their path of travel by two identical guideways generally identified by thereference numeral 45 with one guideway being mounted on each side of the door 20. As depicted in FIG. 5, each guideway 45 comprises parallel rectilinear guide surfaces 46 for cooperation with the parallel edges 36 of the bearing 35 to guide the bearing 35 in a rectilinear path of travel. In addition, each guideway 45 includes a curvilinear guide surface 47 for cooperating with the arcuate ends 37 to guide the bearing 35 in a rotary movement. As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, flanges 48 and 49 extend inwardly beyond the guide surfaces 46 and 47 to retain the bearing 35 in the guideway 45.

The door bearing 35 is shown in FIG. 1 at the lefte'nd of the guideway 45 with the door 20 retracted to its fully open position. In this position, the door 20 is remote from the opening 16 to leave the opening clear for loading as well as unloading purposes. FIGS. 1 to 3 show the operating mechanism for the door 20 on the left side of the body 15. It should be understood that an identical structure is located on the opposite side of the door 20 and the two mechanisms operate in unison for moving the door in the desired path of travel.

When it is desired to move the door 20 to its packing position from the fully open position ilustrated in FIG. 1, hydraulic pressure is admitted into the piston and cylinder mechanisms 26 to cause extension of the associated piston rod 28 out of the cylinder. From this position the bearing 35 can only move along the guide surface 46 so that extension of the piston rod 28 will produce a rectilinear movement of the door bearing 35 along the rectilinear guide surfaces 46 to the extreme right end of the guideway 45 to the position shown in FIG. 2. At the right end of the guideway 45 the bearing 35 reaches the curvilinear guide surface 47 of the guideway 45 and is prevented from any further striaght line movement in a rightward direction, as viewed in the drawings, and the door 20 is then in the intermediate position extended rearwardly of the body 15 over the opening 16.

Although the bearing 35 has reached its limit of straight line movement in a rightward direction when the door is in the intermediate position shown in FIG. 2, the piston rod 28 has not reached its limit of extending movement, and at this point, the pin 29 connecting the piston rod 28 to the link 30 is in an overcenter position. It is above a line drawn through the center of the pin 24 and the center of rotation of the link 30. The center of the pin 24 is the center of the pivotal movement of the piston and cylinder mechanism 26 relative to the body I5. Therefore, continued extension of the piston rod 28 out of its cooperating cylinder causes a rotary motion of the link 30 in a clockwise direction as viewed in the drawings. At this time the arcuate ends 37 of the bearing 34 are in engagement with the curvilinear guide surface 47 of the guideway 45 to guide the bearing 35 in a rotary movement and thereby cause a clockwise rotational movement of the door to the position illustrated in FIG. 3. During this rotary movement, the outer edge of the door 20 moves along the curved rear surface of the floor 17 to move all refuse in that area into the body of the truck and pack the refuse into the truck body and compress it therein. The link 30, of course, will be extending upwardly as illustrated in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, parts of the truck have been broken away and the link 30 on the left side of the truck has been likewise broken away so that the curved ends 37 of the bearing 35 can be clearly seen in cooperating engagement with the curvilinear guide surface 47 of the guideway 45 for guiding the bearing 35 and its associated door 20 in a rotary movement.

In order to return the door 20 to its fully open position, the operation of the piston and cylinder mechanism 26 is reversed to retract the piston rod 28. Initial retraction of the piston rod 28 will cause a rotary movement of the link 30 and its associated bearing 35 in a' counterclockwise direction as viewed in the drawings to cause a corresponding rotary movement of the door 20 until it arrives at the intermediate position illustrated in FIG. 2.-When the door arrives at approximately this position, the retraction of the piston rod 28 will cause a withdrawal of the bearing 35 from the curvilinear guide surface 47 at the right end of the guideway 45 and the parallel straight edges 36 of the bearing 35 will cooperate with the straight parallel guide surfaces 46 of the guideway 45 to draw the bearing 35 in a straight line path and thereby retract the door 20. Such retraction will occur until the bearing 35 arrives at the left end of the guideway 45 where it will be stopped and the door 20 will be fully retracted into the position shown in FIG. 1.

From the foregoing detailed description of the present invention, it will be readily understood that an improved mechanism has been provided for power operation of a packing door on refuse trucks. A unique guideway and bearing arrangement is provided whereby a piston and cylinder mechanism actuates the bearing in the guideway to move the packing door in a rotary movement to open the loading opening, and then continued movement of the piston rod causes a rectilinear movement of'the door to fully retract it from the opening so that the opening is clear for loading and unloading operations.

Although the illustrative embodiment of the present invention has been described in considerable detail for the purpose of making a full disclosure of a practical operative arrangement by means of which the invention may be practised, it is to be understood that various novel features of the invention may be incorporated in other arrangements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the subjoined claims. V I I The principles of the inventionhaving now been fully explained in connection with the foregoing description of the illustrative embodiment, the invention is hereby claimed as follows:

1. In a truck for hauling refuse; a body for receiving the refuse to be hauled, said body having a roof and a floor and an opening through which the material is passed for laoding into the truck body and for unloading it out of the truck body; a door movable through said opening; bearing means fixed to said door; a rectilinear guide adapted to receive said bearing means and guide it in a rectilinear path of travel for producing a corresponding rectilinear movement of said door to a remote position away from the opening for providing clearance at the opening for the loading and unloading operations; a rotary guide for guiding said bearing means in a rotary movement for producing a corre sponding rotary movement of said door in a packing movement for packing the refuse in said body, said rotary guide being contiguous with said rectilinear guide so thatsaid bearing means can move from said rectilinear guide into said rotary guide and from said rotary guide into said rectilinear guide; and power actuating means connected to move said bearing means in said rectilinear guide for producing the rectilinear movement of saiddoor when said bearing means is in the rectilinear guide and to move said bearing means in said rotary guide for producing the rotary movement of said door when said bearing means isin said rotary guide, said power actuating means also operating to move said bearing means from said rectilinear guide into said rotary guide and from said rotary guide into said rectilinear guide.

2. A truck according to claim 1 wherein said bearing means includes; a pair ofparallel straight edges for engagement with said rectilinear guide surface of said guide means for guiding said bearing means in the rectilinear path of travel; and a pair of oppositely disposed arcuate edges for engagement with said rotary guide surface of said guide means for guiding said bearing means in its rotary movement.

3. A truck according to claim 1 wherein said power actuating means operates to move said bearing means along said rectilinear guide surface of said guide means into engagement with said rotary guide surface for moving said door in its rectilinear path of travel from its remote position toward the opening in said body, said rotary guide surface preventing further rectilinear movement of said bearing means, and continued actuation of said power means serves to move said bearing means about said rotary guide surface for producing the rotary guide surface for producing the rotary movement of said bearing means and thereby cause the rotary movement of said door.

4. A truck according to claim 3 wherein said power means comprises a hydraulic piston and cylinder mechanism mounted on each side of said body; and including a pair of said guide means with one guide means mounted on each side of said body, and a pair of saidrotary means also serving to rotate said door in the reverse direction from the intermediate position to the closed position; and means for moving said door in a rectilinear path from the intermediate position to a fully open position to provide greater clearance about the opening, said moving means being also reversible for returning said door in a rectilinear path from the fully open position to the intermediate position. 

1. In a truck for hauling refuse; a body for receiving the refuse to be hauled, said body having a roof and a floor and an opening through which the material is passed for laoding into the truck body and for unloading it out of the truck body; a door movable through said opening; bearing means fixed to said door; a rectilinear guide adapted to receive said bearing means and guide it in a rectilinear path of travel for producing a corresponding rectilinear movement of said door to a remote position away from the opening for providing clearance at the opening for the loading and unloading operations; a rotary guide for guiding said bearing means in a rotary movement for producing a corresponding rotary movement of said door in a packing movement for packing the refuse in said body, said rotary guide being contiguous with said rectilinear guide so that said bearing means can move from said rectilinear guide into said rotary guide and from said rotary guide into sAid rectilinear guide; and power actuating means connected to move said bearing means in said rectilinear guide for producing the rectilinear movement of said door when said bearing means is in the rectilinear guide and to move said bearing means in said rotary guide for producing the rotary movement of said door when said bearing means is in said rotary guide, said power actuating means also operating to move said bearing means from said rectilinear guide into said rotary guide and from said rotary guide into said rectilinear guide.
 2. A truck according to claim 1 wherein said bearing means includes; a pair of parallel straight edges for engagement with said rectilinear guide surface of said guide means for guiding said bearing means in the rectilinear path of travel; and a pair of oppositely disposed arcuate edges for engagement with said rotary guide surface of said guide means for guiding said bearing means in its rotary movement.
 3. A truck according to claim 1 wherein said power actuating means operates to move said bearing means along said rectilinear guide surface of said guide means into engagement with said rotary guide surface for moving said door in its rectilinear path of travel from its remote position toward the opening in said body, said rotary guide surface preventing further rectilinear movement of said bearing means, and continued actuation of said power means serves to move said bearing means about said rotary guide surface for producing the rotary guide surface for producing the rotary movement of said bearing means and thereby cause the rotary movement of said door.
 4. A truck according to claim 3 wherein said power means comprises a hydraulic piston and cylinder mechanism mounted on each side of said body; and including a pair of said guide means with one guide means mounted on each side of said body, and a pair of said bearing means with one of said bearing means fixed to one side of said door for cooperating with one of said guide means, the other of said bearing means being mounted on the opposite side of said door; and a pair of links with each link coupling one of said piston and cylinder mechanisms to one of said bearing means for actuating said bearings in unison in said guide means.
 5. In a truck for hauling material; a body having a roof and a floor and an opening through which the material is passed for loading into the truck body and for unloading it out of the truck body; a door that fits into the opening in said truck body for closing the opening; rotary means connected to rotate said door out of said opening to an intermediate open position to render the opening accessible for passing material through it, said rotary means also serving to rotate said door in the reverse direction from the intermediate position to the closed position; and means for moving said door in a rectilinear path from the intermediate position to a fully open position to provide greater clearance about the opening, said moving means being also reversible for returning said door in a rectilinear path from the fully open position to the intermediate position. 